Adam Breneman's College Football Show

Week 8 left college football wide open. In this week’s show, I give you my top 10 teams, explain what everyone is missing about Miami, make the case for Florida’s coach, and tell you why Arizona is the Big 12 team nobody is talking about. I also tell you how I missed a flight and ended up taking a $400 Uber to a PrizePicks event in Palm Beach.

Everyone in the Big 12 is talking about Utah, BYU and Texas Tech. But I think they’re overlooking Arizona. I called their game against Washington State this year, and I walked away believing this team could do something special. Now they’ve just beaten Iowa State 39-3, while BYU and Texas Tech both lost, meaning the conference race is wide open. I think Arizona can win the Big 12, and it all starts with quarterback Noah Fifita.

Florida went 4-8 last year and fired Billy Napier by October. This year the Gators have beaten two top-10 teams, including a win at Texas with a first-time starter at quarterback. I sat down with Jon Sumrall this offseason, before he coached a snap at Florida, and his story explains why it’s working. Here’s why I think Florida finally found the right guy, and what still has to happen for it to last.

The AP poll is a mess right now. Not one voter turned in the same top 10, so I built my own. As a former All-American and D1 coach, I judge teams based on their whole body of work, not one result. Here’s my top 10 after Week 8, and where I think everyone else got it wrong.

Miami is 7-0, ranked No. 1, and averaging 49 points a game. Everyone is talking about the quarterback and the playmakers, but I think they’re missing why it works. This summer I sat down with Mario Cristobal and general manager Dennis Smith, and everything comes back to the lines. Miami is running for 211 yards a game while holding opponents to 60. Here’s how Cristobal built it, and why North Carolina and Notre Dame will show us if it holds up.

Week 7 had a little of everything. BYU knocked off Notre Dame as a 10-point underdog, Indiana lost for the first time in 22 games, and Penn State is 0-4 in the Big Ten under a first-year coach. I start with BYU, a team I watched up close at Colorado State, and ask whether the Cougars can really win it all. Then I turn to Penn State, where Christian Hackenberg and I talk about what’s going on inside this locker room, because we were inside one like it in 2014. After that I explain why you shouldn’t panic about Indiana and what the Hoosiers have to fix. I finish in the Pac-12, where I was still on the call for Fresno State at San Diego State at 1:30 in the morning, and I can’t stop thinking about this league.

I called BYU’s game at Colorado State, so I’ve been telling you this team is for real. Saturday night was the proof. BYU shocked Notre Dame 28-24 as a 10-point underdog. Not only that, but they did it while muffing a punt, botching a fake punt and going scoreless in the third quarter. Here’s why I think BYU has the tools to win it all, and why the mistakes they got away with might be the most encouraging part.

Penn State is 0-4 in the Big Ten with a first-year coach. Christian Hackenberg and I have been in this exact spot. In 2014, James Franklin’s first team started hot, lost four straight and still finished 7-6 with a Pinstripe Bowl win. So I sat down with Hack to ask what a locker room sounds like in the middle of a losing streak and what a bye week can do for a team that’s lost its footing. Matt Campbell’s team has the same chance to save its season, and this is what it takes to write the same ending.

I was still on the call for Fresno State at San Diego State when the clock went past 1:30 AM Eastern. And after seeing four Pac-12 stadiums this season, I’m ready to plant my flag. Oregon State has the best passing attack in the country and Boise State has one of its best backfields. Add a late-night slate that feels like the old Pac-12 After Dark, and a league that has a real shot at being the top G6 conference, and I think this is everything we love about college football.

I’ve sat down with Curt Cignetti twice, and I can promise you one loss won’t change how he runs this program. Saturday was ugly. Indiana got inside the Ohio State 40 six times and only scored twice, missed two field goals, and went 0-for-2 on fourth down. I’ll walk through what went wrong, why I’m not panicking, and how Indiana cleans things up.